Letters - 2020

Isolation and the adventure of distance learning. The desire to accompany each other and the inability to help friends. And the inexplicable, but real evidence of a "constant backdrop of joy and certainty".

Rocco's illness, the impossibility of seeing him apart from upon a screen, novenas... Until a message received from his wife at the beginning of May: "He has gone to heaven." Eva recounts the gift of four years of friendship.

Reality that seems to contradict the desires of the heart. Pain visible everywhere and the mystery of reality that escapes the capacity of understanding. But a simple gesture reawakens Alberto's humanity, and a request arises.

Her lockdown began well before the Coronavirus outbreak, with a change of job and the many questions that exploded in the face of fatigue. Yet, in the midst of all this, it is possible to live “peace”, as Barbara recounts from Nigeria.

She is a teacher to two hundred pupils and mother of six children. She is busy with video-lessons and keeping the house running. “How do I start breathing again?” A question that finds a surprising answer where you least expect it.

The coronavirus tsunami has turned the lives of students and teachers upside down. What do we do? Small steps, made up of computers and video-lessons, between doubts and attempts. And that screen that gradually fills up with faces.

During the pandemic, demand has increased by 30%. But extraordinary donations to the Lazio Food Bank have never been lacking, like the donations from comedian Maurizio Battista and his friends from "The Hummingbird".

What does "living life as vocation" mean? And "responding to the Lord through circumstances?" To look at quarantine in light of the provocations in Carrón’s ebook about the pandemic. A letter from Caracas.

"I would like to know more about Jesus..." Elena is startled by her friend’s question, which sets her in motion. Deep down, she says to herself, she shares this same desire. An energy that ends up involving the people in her neighborhood.

A group of friends linked to a Cultural Centre decide to financially support local associations dealing with the health emergency. Someone then re-launches Carrón's provocation about the nature of the Common Fund. And their perspective changes.

The Coronavirus crisis is beginning to wreak havoc in the business sector and young workers are becoming part of a vulnerable population with a very uncertain future. In the face of helplessness, questions arise and a path opens up.

The difficulties of being a teacher during this period have emerged. But also the difficulties of being a father, a husband, a son. But this circumstance can also be a condition to learn how to be a teacher, father, husband and son right now.

After organising a long-desired six-month stay in South America, Davide leaves his country in an extreme situation due to Coronavirus. When he arrives in Uruguay, he finds a reality that is very different from his initial plan.

Giuseppe Bentivoglio died on April 8. He had left Varese, he had nurtured the movement in Giulianova, and then landed in the Canton of Ticino. In his spiritual will: "Like a weaned child is my soul within me.” The memory of a friend.